Anyone familiar with Dave Ramsey’s television or radio program have heard of his Financial Peace University. I’ve listened to Dave on and off for a decade, and I’ve heard his explain how to structure dividing a child’s commissions (not allowance!), but I never knew he had a practical hands-on version for kids.

Financial Peace, Jr. is a way to introduce kids aged 3-12 to the importance of work and how to manage their money. Not surprisingly, saving and giving are part of Financial Peace, Jr.’s structure. However, it also does a GREAT job of teaching a child to SPEND their money, with a way for a child to select something special they want to save for, post a picture of it and make a plan for how to save for it.

The package comes with colorful envelopes for Saving, Giving, and Spending, as well as a chore chart for tracking commissions (and fines), and a good child-oriented explanation of how and why to use Financial Peace, Jr.

Dave suggests displaying the charts on the ‘fridge, but we chose to mount a magnetic white board in a prominent location to hold the charts, and serve as a family message board. Because our kids switch between two sets of chores every other week, I made a Child A and Child B chart and along with changing the date each week after the kids are paid their commission, we also note which child owns which chart for that week. I outlined the days the chores are to be done in black sharpie. For the chores that are day specific, like taking out the trash, I outlined the days on which the chores are to be done in black sharpie. For chores that need to be done each day, I outlined each day of the week in sharpie.

We’ve used Financial Peace, Jr. for six months now and it’s worked quite well.